Thank You
by JT4Life
Summary: Olivia's been having a bad day... who will cheer her up? Post "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" -minor spoilers- Peter/Olivia ship pairing :D
1. Chapter 1

_Ok, so I was watching the movie 'Sliding Doors' the other day (AMAZING film, go watch it now!) and the song "Thank You" by Dido was played during the credits. When I looked up the lyrics, I thought I might be able to make a decent fic out of it... and this is the result! So, it's not a songfic per-say, just an 'inspired by'._

_Enjoy!_

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**Thank You**

Bitter. Her tea was _bitter_. God only knows how a simple tea could be so bitter. It was herbal tea, for crying out loud! And yet, it was bitter, and revoltingly so. _A perfect way to start a perfect day_, Olivia thought bitterly. That was a terrible pun, but she didn't even notice as she left the small coffee shop and got into her SUV.

Massaging her temples, the young agent closed her eyes, rested her forehead on the steering wheel and mentally slapped herself for drinking so much last night. It was supposed to be only one drink with Peter, but then things got out of hand. She'd gotten carried away, injudicious. Peter had insisted on buying her another drink, and then she'd bought him another, and so on and so forth until both were almost completely wasted. She remembered calling a cab for them, but the details from then on were fuzzy. The cab had dropped her off first… Peter had helped her up the steps and into her apartment... Nothing had 'happened' between them as far as she knew. After all, she'd woken up alone… but oh God, what if something had? The more she thought about it, the greater the pressure on the inside of her head became.

_Just get to work - get there before you're late._

Olivia opened her eyes and focused on turning the key in the ignition and placing her foot on the gas petal.

_Just drive. Concentrate on driving._

She navigated the streets slowly and cautiously. An accident was the last thing she needed on a day like this, and the rain-washed streets would only contribute to the odds. Before she pulled her car into the underground parking lot, the FBI agent caught a glimpse of the sky. Gray, gray, gray. A promise for more rain and no sun.

Once her car was parked, she glanced at her practically untouched beverage sitting in the cup holder. As disgusting as her tea was, she decided to take a sip in an attempt to warm herself up, if only a little bit. But it was cold. Cold, bitter tea. Feeling defeated, Olivia threw the drink out on the way up to her office. There, she was greeted by a large pile of paperwork that lay waiting on her desk.

"No…" she mumbled aloud at the sight of the pile. No sooner had she sat down and begun rubbing her temples again to ease the throbbing when there was a knock at her door. At first, she didn't answer, secretly wishing that they'd just go away if she didn't respond.

_Knock, knock, knock._

Olivia gave in and replied without bothering to look up. "Come in."

"Hey," the visitor greeted her. It took a moment for her brain to register that it was Peter, but when it did, her head snapped up. Something inside her responded to his voice like a dog to a hunting call… and made her smile ever so slightly. He gave her a sideways look. "Are you ok? You look like hell."

"Thanks."

He chuckled at her sarcasm. "I brought you something." Peter was smiling kindly at her and holding… was that a cup of coffee? Olivia had only just realized that he had been carrying something. He walked over and sat on the edge of her desk, offered her the cup.

Olivia accepted it graciously. "You're a life saver, Peter."

He grinned again. "Thought you might be needing this, I know I did already."

Olivia glanced up at him as she sipped her much needed coffee. Peter was referring to last night, but he wasn't acting weird about it at all. Despite the fact that Olivia had no idea what may have transpired in the sections of her memory that were blank, she wasn't at all uncomfortable around Peter. She was beginning to feel warm all over, and she knew well enough that it wasn't just from the steaming coffee. He had just turned her shitty day upside down just by being with her for no more than a minute. That in itself said a lot about things that Olivia wasn't able to fully admit to herself, but she knew they were there anyways.

"Did you have a good time last night?" Peter asked casually, interrupting her train of thought.

"I did, I..." Olivia trailed off. She had started to ask him something about what had happened the previous night, but stopped herself before her words took off with minds of their own.

Peter raised an eyebrow. "You…?" He prompted her to continue.

Olivia bit her lip. She cast her eyes about her office to double check that they were alone and that the door was closed before opening her mouth.

"I… I was just wondering what – what exactly happened when…" She leant toward him and spoke, almost in a whisper, "when you helped me to up to my apartment?"

Olivia waited for him to react to what she said for what felt like en eternity. A thousand different possible responses ran through her head, but not one of them were remotely correct. Much to Olivia's embarrassment, Peter laughed. Olivia could feel her face go red. She waited as patiently as she could for his chuckles to subside.

"Oh, Olivia," Peter sighed and shook his head. "Having a little memory lapse, are we?"

Olivia shot him a look but she was still smiling.

"You were far more wasted than I was," Peter began very matter-of-factly, "so I had no choice but to help you into your apartment or worry that you had wandered off somewhere -,"

"You were worried about me?" Olivia teased.

"No, I would have worried had I not had to practically carry you through the front door," he corrected her with a smirk. "I laid you in bed, tucked you in for the night, and you were passed out before I had even left the room." At Olivia's relieved expression, Peter smiled and rolled his eyes. "Nothing happened, Liv."

Olivia nodded and looked down at her coffee, suddenly feeling very stupid for asking such a question. Peter was a good man; he wouldn't have taken advantage of her.

"Thank you," Olivia managed to say, "for last night, the coffee…" she gestured to the empty cup in her hand.

Peter shrugged. "Hey, I'm just looking out for you."

"I'm fully capable of looking after myself-," she began to protest, but Peter cut her off abruptly.

"It's worth it." He replied with an amused grin. "You're quite the character when you're drunk."

Olivia laughed, blushing. "Do I even want to know?"

Peter thought for a moment. "Most likely… not." She raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry, it's nothing that would ever make me think any less of you," he said with a hint of a grin, but his eyes were honest. He could read her every emotion like they were written out on the pages of a book - and she knew it - but found that it didn't bother her because… well, because it was Peter.

"I promised Walter I'd help him with some test on some tissue sample or other," Peter said. "The man's been raving about that parasite we found since five in the morning."

"Have fun with that," Olivia joked. Peter caught her sarcasm and nodded in fake appreciation.

"Oh, believe me, I will," he sighed. "Stay outta trouble while I'm gone, ok?" He winked at her on his way out the door.

Olivia nodded and watched him leave.

_Wow. What a guy._

She rolled her eyes at herself and was about to start on her paperwork but paused. Something was different. Puzzled, Olivia gazed at the pile for a moment. Weird… she thought it had been a much higher stack before Peter had come knocking.

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_This chapter is loosely based on the first & second verses of the song... and I'm debating whether or not to write another chapter for the third verse....?_

_And the only way I'm gonna decide is if you click the pretty little button right down there and let me know whatcha think!!!_

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	2. Chapter 2

_Here's the next chappie!!! Hope you all enjoy reading it 'cuz I had fun writing it!_

_I don't own Fringe or the characters, 'cuz if I did... well, you can finish the end of that sentence on your own!_

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Peter tried to keep him mind on the tasks that Walter had assigned him, but found it hard to concentrate. His mind kept wandering back to Olivia, sitting in her office doing paperwork all day… and that gray cloud that he found he under when he walked into her office. She'd looked terrible, but then the cloud vanished in a matter of seconds, replaced with that smile of hers that could illuminate a whole room. _Women_, he thought, rolling his eyes.

As the day progressed, Walter became bored with his experiments and openly expressed his wish to go and find a nice old-fashioned diner that served a decent root beer float. And in the blink of an eye, the man was out the door and Astrid was kindly driving him downtown to find his drink. That's when Peter remembered that they had taken his car. Groaning at his own stupidity, he ran off to try and find Olivia to beg for a ride. He sure wasn't going to walk home with the clouds hanging ominously low and dark, threatening to rip open and send down buckets of water at a moments notice.

He ended up having to call Olivia and she agreed to swing by the lab to pick him up. After Peter hug up, he noticed that her voice had an odd lift to it, like it had earlier this morning. Man, that woman was having a good day. If Peter knew anything, he knew that this was not by-the-book Olivia Dunham behavior. He'd only ever seen her smile like that once before – last night, when she was drunk as hell. It made Peter smile as he remembered the happiness he saw in her eyes, not twenty-four hours beforehand. She had been happy. Truly, utterly, ecstatically happy. Ad it had made his heart race more than once, just seeing Olivia so free and… stress-free, for once.

"Peter!" Her voice broke into his thoughts. He looked up to see that the black SUV had pulled up to the curb, and she was waving him over.

The drive home was mostly a quiet one. They didn't say much to each other except the quick greeting upon Peter's entry into the vehicle. He was wrapped up in his own thoughts concerning the woman who sat beside him. Some days, he could understand her perfectly. But other days, like today, he didn't have a clue what was going on inside that clever brain of hers.

By the time that Olivia had pulled up in front of the hotel, the clouds that had been threatening to rip open had done just so, and the heavens sure hadn't held back. Visibility was, needless to say, rather low.

Peter turned to Olivia. "Thanks for the ride. I'm sure glad I didn't have to walk instead."

"You're welcome." Her response was quick and to the point, but her eyes still said that she was happy. And, quite frankly, that was all that mattered to Peter right now. Her happiness.

"See ya tomorrow," he said and winked at her like he had that morning. The corners of Olivia's mouth curled into a smile.

"Tomorrow then," she said softly, almost in a whisper.

Peter waved and bolted from the car to the foyer of the hotel. Even though he only took a few seconds for him to dash from the car to the safety of the hotel, Peter found himself nearly drenched. "Of course…" he murmured. First things first, he was jumping in a hot shower the second he was in the room.

X

_Knock, knock, knock._

Peter gave his damp hair one extra ruffle before going to answer the door. His shower was short, but wonderful on a damp, dank evening like this one. He opened the door to find Olivia - looking like she had just jumped in a lake. Little streams of water were rolling off the ends of her jacket, the bottom of her ponytail and just about every part of her. What's more, she was shivering severely.

"H-hey Peter," she chattered.

Peter was stunned. "Did you just come from that…?" He jerked his thumb behind him pointing to the window opposite the door.

"Yeah, m-m-my car hit a nail by that big construction site d-down the road…"

"You mean the one _eight blocks down_??" Peter asked, his eyebrows raised.

"That's the one," Olivia shrugged. Peter stared at her, astounded. Then he realized that he hadn't asked her to come in yet, that he was leaving her shaking and dripping wet in the middle of the hallway.

Shaking his head, he stepped back and let her in. Olivia smiled graciously at the gesture and Peter helped her take off her sopping wet jacket. When he removed the garment from her shoulders, Peter saw that the rain had penetrated her jacket and soaked through to her blouse. He looked away quickly – the fact that she was wearing a white shirt, which happened to turn translucent when wet, wasn't going to affect him.

He took his mind off her shirt by talking. "Why didn't you call a cab or something? You really didn't have to walk that whole way and nearly freeze to death."

She shrugged again. "My phone battery was dead and I'm really not that cold…"

Peter impulsively reached up and placed his hand on her cheek. Her skin felt like ice. Olivia's eyes went wide. "You… you're so warm…"

Peter was caught off guard. She was so, so cold to the touch, and he could feel the tremors that shook her body beneath his fingertips. He frowned. Where was his hospitality?

"Tell you what," he began, "I'm gonna get you something warm to change into, or you're gonna to freeze. And no, I won't take no for an answer," he quipped just as she opened her mouth to kindly reject his offer. Rummaging through his closet, Peter found a warm flannel shirt and a pair of sweat pants (with a drawstring, or she'd never fit into them). _The last time I was giving a woman my clothes to wear…_ he chuckled to himself at the thought and at how entirely different this situation was from that one.

He returned to find Olivia standing and hugging herself, trying to keep warm. His heart went out to her, and he handed her the clothes. "Change into these and I'll get you a coffee." She nodded once and headed into the bathroom. "There's towels in there you can use too," Peter called after her.

He made two large, steaming mugs of hot chocolate with a hint of coffee to give it a kick. A hot mocha was one easily of the best things to drink when you were trying to thaw out.

"Well, at least they're warm…" he heard Olivia say from behind him. Peter turned to see her standing before him in his clothes (which was exceptionally weird since he had only ever seen her in pants suits), which did not fit her tiny frame whatsoever; So much so that the bottoms of the pants covered her feet and that the shirt had slipped, leaving her left shoulder exposed. He blinked. She actually looked good, despite the massive size difference in her attire.

"Fits like a glove," Peter joked. Ruffling her wet hair with a towel, Olivia laughed at his teasing just a little bit, but it was enough to light up that brilliant smile of hers once more, despite the fact that she bent her head in an effort to hide it.

They sat together on the tiny couch in the 'living room' of the suite with their mochas. "Thanks for the drink, it's wonderful," Olivia said as she sipped the drink.

"Yeah, this is one of my favorites," he confessed. "Are you warming up yet?"

She nodded and took another sip. "Much, thanks."

But Peter wasn't a guy known for being able to read people for nothing. He gently brushed his fingers against her cheek again. Her temperature hadn't changed that much since the first time he'd touched her. She turned and froze as his fingers came into contact with her skin. She was still trembling, both literally and not. Peter could see the spark wariness in her eyes at his caress; she was scared of getting involved, of getting too far in and liking it at the same time… of getting the rug pulled out from under her feet with no one to help her up when she least expected it. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her, set her on edge, especially in her current state. "I think you're in shock, Olivia, it's ok, just try to relax," he coaxed her, dropping his hand from her face.

Again, she merely nodded and Peter reached behind him to grab her a blanket. Olivia took one last swig to finish off her drink and wrapped herself in the blanket. She shivered in place, hugging her knees to her chest. Peter wanted nothing more than to comfort her, but he didn't want to scare her or force anything on her. This was a woman who'd been through so much in the last few months alone, never mind the rest of her life.

Even so, it killed him to see her so low, at such a polar opposite from the previous night. So he reached over and, wrapping his arms protectively around her trembling form, pulled her in close. He expected her to stiffen or to push away from him, but instead she leant into his embrace and let herself go limp in his arms. Her hair was still slightly damp and Peter rested his cheek on top of it. Wet or not, Olivia was loosing most of what little body heat she possessed through her head. She snuggled in closer to him. Peter held her tighter.

_She needs this_, he thought. _She needs to feel safe; she needs someone to be there for her._

So Peter held her for a long time.

He was starting to drift off to sleep when Olivia's lethargic voice reached his ears.

"Peter?"

"Yeah?"

Silence; then, "You're a good friend."

"Thanks, 'Livia," Peter slurred.

"Thank _you_," she mumbled into his sweater.

Peter couldn't help but smile (sleepily) at her words. The last thing he remembered before slipping into oblivion was feeling Olivia shift her position against him and sighing contentedly as he too shifted, feeling her head loll against his chest as she too slipped into unconsciousness.

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_Ok, so...? Thoughts, comments, etc, all lovingly accepted in a review, pretty please?_

_I'm deciding if I should write an epilogue or just leave y'all hanging... hehe._

_Thanks for taking the time to read, and thanks for the lovely comments for chappie 1, you guys are awesome!!!_


	3. Epilogue

_Now, I know a bunch of you said no epilogue, but a bunch of you said yes, and I had this idea and a need for a little more closure.... so here goes!!!_

_Enjoy :) _

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Olivia was warm. Comfortable. Relaxed. Blissful. All of which were things that she hadn't truly felt in a while.

Judging by the warm light that she could feel on her face, it was morning. She sighed. The morning was her favorite time of day; everything was fresh, bathed in a golden glow from the rising sun… it was simply breath-taking.

She was about to open her eyes, intending to catch a glimpse of the rising sun over the Boston skyline, to see the way the light glinted off the tall buildings, illuminating every corner of the city streets… but then she remembered where she was. Her eyes snapped open. The golden light streamed through the windows of the Peter Bishop's half of the Bishops' adjoining hotel rooms. Two empty mugs sat on the coffee table. A warm, thick blanket covered her, keeping her warm but not too hot. She was lying on the couch… but not by herself. Olivia was snuggled in tightly with Peter. Her head and hands resting on his chest, his arms around her.

She didn't know what to do. She, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, had fallen asleep with Peter Bishop. On his couch. In his apartment. Olivia was reluctant to move and risk waking him up, but also because she didn't want to leave the comfort of being at his side. His body heat was warmer than any blanket, and it was a luxury that she had not experienced since… since the very night she'd heard of flight 627.

Still lying alongside Peter, Olivia toyed with her options: stay or leave, neither of which seemed like a good idea, yet both had their own appeal. She was stuck. Olivia couldn't bear staying, but leaving Peter, removing herself from his warmth, his protective arms that enclosed her and made her feel safe, was not something that she would – could – let happen. Truth be told, she missed it. She missed feeling safe, having someone right beside her who would never leave her… but then again, she'd never had that before, so then how could she be missing it? Olivia abruptly came the realization that she'd never had those feelings before, not genuine ones, and that, all this time, she'd been craving them. Yearning for them. And now that she'd found it, found that safety and comfort that she'd never before had the pleasure of possessing, the thought of leaving Peter's side scared her.

Olivia suddenly found that she was clinging to Peter, holding him as tightly as she could so she would never lose the raw emotions that were now coursing through her like an adrenaline-fueled fire. It was the way she always felt when he was near, that wonder of his presence that made her knees weak and her heart rate increase drastically every moment they were together. Olivia lay against him, trembling faintly from her fears, with her eyes closed.

"Good morning," Peter's groggy voice whispered from somewhere above her head. She felt his hand stroking her hair. All sense of the would-be awkwardness between them at such an awakening gone, Olivia lifted her head and looked Peter in the eye. He frowned. She could almost see the gears in his mind turning as her took in her facial expression. "What's wrong, Liv?"

She just looked back at him, at a loss of words. As much as Olivia wanted to tell him everything, all the deep thoughts and passions that had just been coursing through her mind, she couldn't bring herself to worry him further. So she didn't speak, and just prayed that her eyes could do the talking for her. After a moment of studying her face, Peter propped himself up on a pillow and cupped Olivia's face in his hands, still holding her against him. He continued to gaze into her eyes for not much more than a few seconds when a glimpse of comprehension flashed across his face.

"Olivia…" His smile was sympathetic, like he accepted that he might never fully understand everything that she'd been through up to this day, but would still try anyways.

Olivia hadn't cried in months, not since she'd sat at the back of that ambulance below the overpass on the highway. Not once since. She'd nearly lost it when Peter had found her in the hall earlier in the day when here so called 'birthday card' had come, but she had held back, kept her emotions in check. It was what she did every day being an agent for the government. But right now, she wasn't an FBI agent, she was just Olivia. Plus, the way that Peter was stroking her cheek wasn't helping much, so Olivia gave in and let the tears come, and come they did.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd cried this much in her adult life. Olivia shook violently and grabbed Peter's shirt in fistfuls while he stroked her hair and rubbed circles on her back. Every now and then, he would whisper a comforting word in her ear. Olivia didn't know how long the two of them had laid there, or how long she had been sobbing on Peter's chest. But when her eyes were finally dry and her shaking had subsided to no more than an occasional shuddering breath, she waited for Peter to say something and break the silence, but he didn't. He let her lay there with him in peace, continuing to run his fingers through her hair and rub her back.

Eventually, it was Olivia who broke the silence. "I'm sorry… I really soaked your shirt."

Peter chuckled and Olivia could feel his diaphragm quaking beneath her. "It's ok, I don't mind," he whispered and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in extra close for a hug.

Olivia wasn't sure how to express her gratitude to Peter, so she tried to piece a sentence together. "You're… you've got to be the nicest guy I've ever met to… to do this for me."

Peter was quiet for a moment, but then he gently pulled her off him and sat up, placing her beside him on the couch. "Olivia," he began, looking her directly in the eyes, his hands resting on her shoulders, "you've got to understand that I'm doing this… because I care about you. A lot. Why else would I get you rip roaring drunk one night and then give you my clothes and let you sleep with me the next?" His face broke into a small grin, as did Olivia's. She found herself blushing a bit now that Peter had actually voiced the things that had happened between then the past couple days. The drinks, the night in his hotel, but even more so, the unsaid things that were reflected in his eyes – the strange new thoughts and sensations that had been bubbling inside Olivia for the last few months that had just now come to boiling point. "I'm here for you, Liv. I'm… I'm here for you. Just know that. And I always will be."

Olivia's heart swelled at his words. It literally felt as though her chest would burst from the pressure, and that she might cry from pure happiness. Incapable of containing herself, Olivia bent forward and planted a quick kiss on Peter's cheek. He blinked, surprised by her sudden display of affection. She smiled and shook her head, amazed. "I didn't know what to say, Peter…"

"So you kissed me instead?" he questioned her, that ever so familiar playful look dancing about in his eyes.

She shrugged, her cheeks going scarlet. "When words fail -,"

"The heart fills in," Peter finished softly. He was looking at her that way again – that way that rendered her mind useless and her tongue to lead, so she couldn't utter a word when Peter began to lean in toward her. Olivia felt as though she had lost control of her body for her head was automatically tilting slightly to the side while some unknown force moved her body closer to Peter's. A moment later, his lips were brushing against hers and she was kissing him back. Gently at first, but then more and more passionately as Peter responded to her touch, rubbing his hands up and down her back and through her hair while she ruffled the back of his hair and pressed her body against his.

About to run out of air, Olivia pulled back, her hands still around his neck, his hands around the back of her head. She was breathing heavily, as was Peter, who looked concerned. "Did I push you too far?" he asked gently.

"No, no it was great – actually it was amazing, but…"

"But you want to take it slowly."

_How did he do that?_ Olivia wondered, astounded.

"Yes," she whispered, looking down at her lap, feeling like she'd let him down. Of course, Peter picked up on her vibe and took her face in his hands, making her look up at him.

"It's ok, Liv, there's nothing for you to feel ashamed of," he promised her. "We can take it slow, if that's what you want." She nodded, his hands still cupping her face.

"Ok then…" Peter spoke softly and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. He was beaming at her with such a kindness that Olivia could hardly believe she'd been lucky enough to meet a man with as much compassion as Peter, and with his capacity to love. Maybe even to love _her_. The fact that he was so damn handsome was just an added bonus.

Peter saw her smiling as she thought about him, _them_, and he pulled her to him and hugged her tightly.

Olivia let out a sigh of contentment and whispered quietly into Peter's shirt, "I love you."

"I love you too, Liv."

So it wasn't just a possibility anymore. He did love her, and as much as she felt she didn't deserve him, Peter seemed to think otherwise.

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_So... what do you think??? I'm done the fic now (for good, lol!) and I just want say two things:_

_1, you guys are super awesome for leaving me so many nice reviews and_

_2, feel like leaving one more review for me? ;)_

_xoxo_


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